We were ambivalent about the trailers for the animated Space Battleship Yamato movie, but we're full-on excited for live-action space battleship fun. Something about the crusty old captain with and the ship firing all batteries just gets us going.

Space Battleship Yamato, known in the U.S. as Star Blazers, was a total classic of our youth, featuring a massive spaceship built into the ruins of the World War II battleship Yamato. It's off to outer space to save us from the evil forces of Gamilon.

The animated version, known as Uchū Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu Hen, came out December 12 in Japan, but sadly it tanked. But we're hopeful we get to see this live-action version in 2010, as promised. According to Anime News Network, Takashi Yamazaki, director of Returner, is handling the film. And pop star Takuya Kimura (Howl from Howl's Moving Castle) plays the lead role, Sasumu Kodai. The main female lead, Yuki, is more of an action hero than in the 1970s version, and two characters who were male in the original will now be female.

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Let's just hope Desslok/Desslar brings the blue-skinned purring menace, or there's going to be some unpleasantness. [Anime Vice]